Part of our Brown Bag Lunch Series
Backing off the Cliff: Working With High Functioning Autism Clients (Level One-ASD)
with George Grant, LPC
January 22, 2025 12:00 – 1:00pm
On Zoom Only – 1 CE
Participation is free. There is a $17 admin fee for each CE.
Some might trace the origins of autism and schizophrenia back to Ovid’s star-crossed romance of Narcissus and Echo, who each existed alone in their worlds. Narcissus had an impenetrable emotional boundary, allowing no one in. Echo had no boundaries and saw no difference between herself and others. Each remained alone in the world in their own way, making a relationship impossible.
We will discuss the concept of adhesive identification, the narcissism that can develop as a different response to autism’s inner stimulus bombardment, and the somatic transference that may occur when working with autistic people. How can cultivating an observing ego, activities that foster mentalization and imagination, and object-oriented activities help? How can they bring about social interactions?
Recently, neuroscience has placed autism at one end of a scale of developmental neural pruning, when the brain sloughs off synaptic connections or accumulated,
but no longer needed learning, and psychosis at the other.
With this the under-pruned autistic brain calls for socio-emotional interaction that differs from that needed by the excessively pruned brain of someone in psychosis.
We will be considering:
- The concept of contact functioning as a relationship preservative intervention.
- The concept of neural pruning.
- Interventions to promote a sense of safety.
- Interventions addressing stimulation regulation techniques in the face of meltdowns or withdrawal, and strategies for maximizing the power of intuition and imagination.
Course Objectives – Participants will be able to:
- Identify the three types of patients in Adhesive Identification.
- Understand narcissistic identification as it pertains to Autism Spectrum Disorders.
- Understand the concept of Neural Pruning.
- Design therapeutic interventions based on contact functioning for an underpruned brain.
- Describe the importance of intuition and imagination in interventions with patients on the spectrum.
Mr. Grant started working life as an electrical engineer in telecom. During the telecom bust of the early 2000s, he turned the crisis into greater meaning by becoming a high school physics teacher. In an effort for this recovering engineer to better understand his students, he started taking a class each semester in the evening at ACAP in Livingston, NJ, in 2007. Today, Mr. Grant has an MA in Mental Health Counseling from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, holds an ABAP-accredited psychoanalytic certificate from ACAP, is a licensed professional counselor, and is a state-certified psychoanalyst in the State of NJ.
He has retired from teaching, has a growing clinical practice, and has been one of the founding members of iStrive, a program for young adults on the spectrum who have aged out of other programs. He has also recently facilitated groups part-time at the JCNV for three years and works for Monmouth Integrative Counseling. Mr. Grant also holds a BSEE and an MBA and has endorsements in teaching mathematics and physical science at the secondary level from NJ.
ACAP is an approved CE provider for:
Art Therapists
Counselors
Marriage and Family Counselors
NJ Psychoanalysts
NJ Social Workers
NY Creative Arts Therapists
Psychologists
For CE Information- visit our website, https://acapnj.org/ce-information/
For questions or information email Cassio Campello at [email protected]
or call 973-629-1002
